Geomatics Engineer by profession
Neogeographer at heart
Shoaib Burq

\"It is neither the strongest species that
survive, nor the most intelligent, but the
ones most responsive to change\"
Charles Darwin

lessons in interoperability from web2.0

mash up artist my online GIS app

The Dongle
chastity belt of the early GIS professional

1982

Open Geospatial Consortium
OGC’s roots are in GRASS/Open Source

GIS in Government
&
University Research
GIS in Government, Business
&
Specialist industry

Some OGC Standards
 Simple Features Specification
 Web Mapping Service (WMS)
 Web Feature Service (transactional) (WFS-t)
 Web Coverage Service (WCS)
 Web Processing Service (WPS)
 Sensor Observation Service (SOS)
 OGC Catalogue Service (OCS)
 Style Layer Descriptor (SLD)

OGC specs in action
Life Saving Victoria
Incident & Hazard Mapping System
http://lifesaver.vpac.org

Business Objectives
collect
report
decision

Technical Objectives
“fit for purpose”
address all business needs but not too
complex for user

Technical Objectives
work at variable network speeds
even 56k

Technical Objectives
hazards & incidents data collection
from remote sites into a server-side
repository

Technical Objectives
distribute LSV corporate data such as
ABSAMP database to LSC’s
ABSAMP = Australian Beach Safety and
Management Program

Technical Objectives
hierarchical & role-based
authentication
local - state - national

Technical Objectives
handle the temporal dimension of
hazards
e.g. rips may last only a few hours

Technical Objectives
budgetary limitations
leverage open source & free data

M a p b u ild e r
W M S , W F S - T C lie n t
IN T E R N E T
S p a t ia l G e t R e q u e s t
S p a t ia l P u t R e q u e s t
T IE R 1 - W E B A P P L IC A T IO N
M a p L a y e rs
over H TTP
A e r ia l P h o t o ( E C W ) + IN T E R N E T
V ic M a p D a t a s e t s
G e o s e rv e r
(W M S S e rv e r)
(W F S -T S e rv e r)
T IE R 2 - W E B S E R V IC E
S p a t ia l S Q L Q u e r ie s
G D A L IO e n g i n e
Sp
at
ia
lQ
ue
r ie
s
B o u n d a r ie s D a t a
P o s t G IS s t o r e f o r
T r a n s a c t io n a l D a t a R a s te r /V e c to r
R a d a r & W e a th e r D a ta
D a ta o n
F ile S y s t e m
T IE R 3 - S P A T IA L IS E D D A T A B A S E
W M S S E R V IC E S
B lu e M a r b le
Source: http://www.foss4g2006.org/contributionDisplay.py?contribId=69&sessionId=52&confId=1

Three Tier Architecture
Web Client
Application Server
Spatial Database

PostGIS: Simple Feature Specification

Simple Feature
Specification

PostGIS: Simple Feature Specification

Geoserver: WCS, WMS, WFS-T & SLD
PostGIS: Simple Feature Specification

Web Mapping Service (WMS)
dumb image

Web Mapping Service (WMS)
for humans consumption only

Web Mapping Service (WMS)
a bit like a scanned PDF document

Style Layer Descriptor
(SLD)
way to specify symbology and …
rules on how to render maps & legends

Web Feature Service
Transactional (WFS-t)
actual GML (vector) data

Web Feature Service
Transactional (WFS-t)
for machines consumption

Web Feature Service
Transactional (WFS-t)
a bit like an editable Word document
defines create, read, update & delete
on geographic features

Web Coverage Service (WCS)
think WFS for raster
actual raster data online
for machine consumption

Geoserver: WCS, WMS, WFS-T & SLD
PostGIS: Simple Feature Specification

Mapbuilder: WMS & WFS-T client
Geoserver: WCS, WMS, WFS-T & SLD
PostGIS: Simple Feature Specification

WMS, WFS-t Clients
interface humans & complex technology
use requests converted to OGC compliant
xml
decodes the OGC responses for human
consumption

Mapbuilder: WMS & WFS-T client
Geoserver: WCS, WMS, WFS-T & SLD
PostGIS: Simple Feature Specification

Shapefile
Simple
GetFeature WFS
Feature
Spec
Oracle
GetMap
MapBuilder WMS
Spatial
GetCoverage WCS
PostGIS

Lets Watch it in Action
action

Where did I/OGC go wrong?
built for interoperability
or
built using interoperable standards

The Second Shift
a look at history

Day of the long tail

“Simple, intuitive and timely access to
useful geographic data & information is my
right and not a privilege”
The new customer

It’s easy to dismiss Web2.0
at first glance

You cannot be serious!

http://kiva.org

“Simple, intuitive and timely access to
useful geographic data & information is my
right and not a privilege”
The new customer

What do they get from us?
WFS, WMS, WCS, WPS, WxS, blah,
blah, blah …

What do they get from us?
forgot it!
WFS, WMS, WCS, WPS, WxS, blah,
blah, blah …

they create their own community
standards for sharing data … but are
they any good?

Are they any good?
“These powerful forces are creating
‘tensions’ that impact how we shape
and create standards for the global
community …

Are they any good?
“Many of these tensions and associated
market forces are the same ones that
are driving the evolution of the Web
(Web 2.0 and Where 2.0) and the
integrated GeoWeb …

Are they any good?
KML and GeoRSS are two new formats
that are making great headway on
the Web …

Are they any good?
… strong collaboration between the
\"traditional\" standards community
and the Where 2.0 community can
provide the greatest benefit for
everyone”
Can you guess who said this?

Are they any good?
… strong collaboration between the
\"traditional\" standards community
and the Where 2.0 community can
provide the greatest benefit for
everyone”
Carl Reed
CTO, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

let’s take GeoRSS
+ =

Atom & GeoRSS

Interoperable out of the
box
A standard identification system

Interoperable out of the
box
A standard interaction protocol

Interoperable out of the
box
Standard data exchange formats

GeoNetwork

National Snow & Ice Data Centre
http://nsidc.org/news/nsidc_rss.html

NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/subscribe.php

UK Lib Dem Networking Site
http://www.flocktogether.org.uk

http://mapufacture.com/maps/1268-San-Di

http://tsunami.jrc.it/model/getRSS.asp?type=2
http://xrl.us/tsunamimodel

http://mapufacture.com/maps/1268-San-Di
We want to integrate with everything. We want to
integrate with your service and data. And we want to
improve, continuously.
-- Andrew Turner
(Mapufacture)

Microformats & Semanitcs
http://microformats.org
following the GeoRSS philosophy of
leveraging existing standards
XHTML

Microformats & Semanitcs

Microformats & Semanitcs
Much in the same way that operating systems
currently associate particular file types with specific
applications, future Web browsers are likely going to
associate semantically marked up data you encounter
on the Web with specific applications, either on your
system or online.
-- Alex Faaborg
Mozilla Firefox Developer

they wanted data didn’t they?

www.geonames.org
Open Source Geocoding
Geonames

www.openstreetmap.org
Open Source Streets Data

http://openaerialmap.org
Open Source Aerial Photography

Pict’Earth

http://hypercube.telascience.org/fire

What’s next?
Micro Satellites, maybe?

Barbarians are at the
door!
whoever thought of just doing
things yourself?

other’s are taking notice …

“…we have acquired ImageAmerica, a
company that builds high resolution
cameras for the collection of aerial
imagery…”

“… acquired Vexcel Corp., a worldwide
leader in photogrammetry, imagery and
remote sensing technologies …”

OGC is responding
Google & Microsoft
principle members of OGC

Web Mapping Service Cache
(WMS-C)
still a proposal
cacheable map image tiles -
performance
in current GeoServer release

What do we do?
what role do National Mapping
Agencies have in this disruptive
environment?
threat or opportunity

What to do?
listen to what they want -- which is to …

http://flickr.com/photos/robertgrove/111165074/

http://flickr.com/photos/robertgrove/111165074/
“help themselves”
“help others”
“do good”
openness is key

Summary

\"It is neither the strongest species that
survive, nor the most intelligent, but the
ones most responsive to change\"
Charles Darwin

Acknowledgements
Andrew Turner (GeoRSS examples)
http://highearthorbit.com
Mikel Maron (GeoRSS examples)
http://brainoff.com
Charlie Savage (Atom vs. WFS)
http://cfis.savagexi.com
http://blog.mapbuzz.com/atom_and_wfs.html

All those Cool Images
Transistor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Electronic_component_transistors.jpg
Assembly Line: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:A-line1913.jpg
School of Athens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sanzio_01.jpg
GRASS logo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Grasslogo_vector_big.png
OGC Simple Features: (adapted from) http://opengeospatial.org/
80’s http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/pop/fashion80.htm
Tux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tux-G2.png
Roadkill http://flickr.com/photos/gmblogs/215084239
CD stack http://flickr.com/photos/aenygmatic/416687548
Dongle http://www.bios-passwort.de
Grass http://flickr.com/photos/ezu/54539889
Grass (2) http://flickr.com/photos/terdata/287937963
Proprietary http://flickr.com/photos/vrogy/525583222
Web20 http://flickr.com/photos/alexmuse/255998171
Hard Drive http://flickr.com/photos/shadphotos/207233715

Thank you
Questions & Discussion